
A PAPER 

O.V THE 

JUDICIAL AND LEGAL CONDITION 



TEMITORY OF WISCONSIN, 



AT AND AFTER ITS ORGANIZATION, 



ANDREW G. MILLER, 1). A. J. UPH4M AND W. A. PRENTISS, 



A CO.'\fMITTEE OF THE OLD SETTLERS' CLUR OF MILWAUKEE COUNTV. 



READ BEFORE THE CLUB BY 

JUDG^E M:iLLEIt, 

July 4, 1870. 




PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CLUB. 




M I L W A U K K K : 

Starr & Sos, Book anp Job Printbrs, 412 and 414 East Water Street. 
1870. * 





Qass. 
Book. 






A PAPER 



.Il'DlCIAL AND LEGAL CONDITION 



TEMITOPiY OF WISCONSIN, 



AT AND AFTER ITS ORGANIZATIOX, 



ANDREW G. MILLER, D. A. J. UPHAM AND W, A. PRENTISS, 

w > > 

A Committee of the old Settlers' Club op Milwaukee Countv. 



» READ BEFORE *IIH CLUB BY 

JUDGE m:illek, 

July 4, ISrO. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CLUB 



M I T. W A IT K K E : 

STARE & Sos, Book and Job PrintbiIs, 412 and 414 East Water Street. 
1870. 



iff SXCHAIV^I 

NiV^ St«t* Library. 

JeirOT 



A PAPER, &c. 



The fceiTitovy North-west of the Ohio river, extending from 
the State of Pennsylvania on the East, to the Mississijipi 
river on the West, and to the British Possessions on the North, 
Avas organized as a temporary government, pursuant to an or- 
dinance of the Confederate Congress, passed July 13, 1787. 
An Act of Congress was passed on the 7th oi August, 1780, to 
give the ordinance full effect, and to adapt it to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. The ordinance provided for the 
organization of a government, consisting of executive, legis- 
lative and judicial departments. But the governor and judges 
were empowered to select statute laws of different States, as 
laws for the territory, until the population would number five 
thousand, when a legislature should be elected and organized. 

By an Act of Congress, approved May 7, 1800, " all that 
part of the territory of the United States, North-west of the 
Ohio river, which lies to the westward of a line, beginning 
at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky river, 
and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence North 
until it intersects the territorial line betw^een the United States 
and Canada, for the purposes of a temporary government, 
constituted a separate territory, called the Indiana territory." 
The general provisions of the ordinance were extended to this 
territory. The judges of the Courts were appointed for good 
behaviour, l)y the President of the United States. April 30, 
1802, the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union. The 
Territory of Indiana was divided, and the Territory of Michi- 
gan organized, pursuant to an Act of Congress, passed Jan- 
uary 11, 1805. By this act the same provisions were made 
respecting the tenure of office of the judges as in the ordi- 
nance. The prescribed boundaries of Michigan Territory, 



were North of a line drawn East from the Southern bend or 
extremity of lake Michigan, until it intersected lake Erie, 
and East of a line drawn from said southerly bend through 
the middle of said lake Michigan to its northern extremity, 
and thence due North to the Northern boundary of the United 
States. 

By an Act of Congress, approved February od, 1809, all 
that part of the Indiana Territory, which lies West of the 
Wabash river, and a direct line drawn from the Wabash river 
and post Vincennes due North to the Teri-itorial line between 
the United States and Canada, was for the purpose of tem- 
porary government constituted a separate Territory, and cal- 
led Illinois. The same provision was made for the appoint- 
ment of the governor and judges and other officers, as in the 
original ordinance. The official tenure of the judges was du- 
ring good behaviour. An Act to enable the people of Indi- 
ana to form a constitution and state government, and for the 
admission of such State into the Union, was passed April 19, 
1816. An Act providing for the admission of Illinois into the 
Union as a State, passed April 18, 1818, established the 
North boundary line of said State at forty-two degrees and 
thirty minutes ; and provided that all the remaining part of 
the north-west territory, lying north of said northern bound- 
ary, should be attached to and made part of Michigan Terri- 
tory. The Act passed June 15, 1836, to provide for the ad- 
mission of the State of Michigan into the Union, established 
the western boundary of said State, from the Montreal river 
to the middle of the Lake of the desert, thence in a direct line 
to the nearest head water of the Menominee river, thence 
through the middle of the fork of the said river first touched 
by the said line to the main channel of the said Menominee 
river, thence down the centre of the main channel of the same 
to the centre of the most usual ship channel of the Green Bay 
of Lake Michigan ; thence through the centre of the most 
usual channel of said bay to the middle of Lake Michigan, 



5 

thence through Lake Michigan to the northern boundary of 
the State of Indiana. April 20, 1836, the Act was passed 
establishing the territorial government of Wisconsin. The 
Territory of Wisconsin embraced Avithin the boundaries pre- 
scribed in the organic act, all the remaining portion of the 
territory north-west of the Ohio river, and also those parts of 
the province or colony of Louisiana ceded to the Cnited 
States by France, by treaty of April 30, 1803, composing the 
State of Iowa, and that portion of the State of Minnesota, 
West of the Mississippi river. The Act provided for the ap- 
pointment by the President, by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the senate, of a governor, a secretary, an attorney, 
and three judges of the Territorial Supreme Court. The 
governor to hold his office for three years, unless sooner re- 
moved, and the judges to hold for good behaviour, T he legis- 
lative power was vested in a governor, and a legislative as- 
sembly, consisting of a council of thirteen members, elected 
every four years, and a house of representatives, of tAvcnty-six 
members, elected every two years. The organic Act further 
directed, that the judicial power of the territory be vested in 
a Supreme Court, District Courts, Probate Courts, and in Jus- 
tices of the Peace. The Supreme Court to consist of a chief 
justice and two associate justices, any two of Avliom to consti- 
tute a quorum, and to hold a term at the seat of government of 
the territory annually. The Act also directed that the terri- 
tory be divided into three judicial districts, and that a Dis- 
trict Court or Courts be held in each of the three districts by 
one of the judges of the Supreme Court, at such times and 
places as may be prescribed by law. The jurisdiction of the 
several Courts, both appellate and original, and that of the 
Probate Courts, and of the justices of the Peace, to be as 
limited by law. The Supreme and District Courts respective- 
ly, to possess chancery as well as common law jurisdiction. 
The Supreme Court was empoAvered to appoint its own clerk, 
and each District Court to appoint its clerk. Writs of 



6 

error and appeals from the final decision ot" the Supreme 
Court were to be allo.wed, and taken to the Supreme Court of 
the United States in the same manner, and under the same 
regulations as from the Circuit Courts of the United States, 
where the amount in controversy exceeded the sum of one 
thousand dollars. And each of the District Courts shall have 
and exercise the same jurisdiction as is vested in the Circuit 
and District Courts of the United States. The oro-anic Act 

o 

also provided for the appointment of a Marshal, by the Tresi- 
dent, by ^nd with the advice and consent of the senate. The 
Act establishing the territorial 2:overnment went into force on 
the 4th of July, 1836, when all the power and authority of 
the government of Michigan in and over the Territory of Wis- 
consin ceased. It is further provided in the organic Act, 
"that the inhabitants of the territory shall be entitled to and 
enjoy all and singular, the rights privileges and advantages 
as secured to the people of the territory of the United States, 
north-west of the river Ohio, by the articles of the compact 
contained in the ordinance for the government of the said ter- 
ritory, passed on the thirteenth day of July, one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven ; and shall be subject to all 
the conditions, restrictions and prohibitions in said articles of 
compact imposed upon the people of the said Territory, The 
said inhabitants shall also be entitled to all the rights, privi- 
leges, and immunities heretofore granted and secured to the 
Territory of Michigan, and to its inhabitants ; and the exist- 
ing laws of the Territory of Michigan shall be extended over 
said Territory, so far as the same shall not be incompatible 
with the provisions of this Act, subject, nevertheless, to be 
altered, modified or repealed by the governor and legislative 
assembly 'of the said Territory of Wisconsin ; and further, 
the laws of the United States are extended over, and shall be 
in force in said Territory, so far as the same or any provisions 
thereof may be applicable. Under this section of the Act, 
the Courts of the Territory administered the laws of Michigan 



until those laws Avcre superceded by the Territorial legisla- 
ture ; ajid sitting as Circuit and District Courts of the United 
States, they administered tlie statute laws of Congress, civil 
and criminal. 

The general principles of the ordinance of August, 1787, 
were embraced in the several Acts above mentioned ; and 
were continued in the constitutions and laws of the States 
embracing the north-west territory. 

Pursuant to an Act of Congress, approved January 30, 
1823, providing for the appointment of an additional judge 
for the Michigan Territory, to possess and exercise judicial 
authority, in the counties of Mackinaw, Brown and Crawford, 
James Duane Doty, of the State of New York, was appointed 
the judge. Henry S. Baird, then a resident of Mackinaw, 
was admitted to the Bar, by judge Doty, at that place, in 
July, 1823. In 1824, Mr. Baird, having removed to Green 
Bay, Avas appointed by the Court, the District Attorney. 
The first grand jury for Brown County, was empannelled at 
that term, and found one indictment for murder, and forty- 
four indictments for lesser offences. During the years 1825, 
1820, 1827 and 1828, the Judge and District Attorney, travel- 
led to Prairie du Chien from Green Bay and back, in bark 
canoes, byway of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, with a crew* 
of six or seven Canadians and Indians. The time of making 
a trip each way was seven days. The country was then an en- 
tire wilderness, there being no white settlements except at 
those two places of holding the Court. They were military 
posts, surrounded by French settlers from Canada. In May, 
1829, Judge Doty, Mr. Baird and Morgan L. Martin, who had 
been admitted to the Bar, travelled on horse back from Green 
Bay to Prairie du Chien, and back, accompanied b}^ a Me- 
nominee Indian, as guide. Their route was by Avay of Fond 
du Lac, Green Lake, the Four Lakes — passing the outlet be^ 
tween second and third lakes, tlie Blue Mounds, the place 
where Dodo-eville is situate, and crossing the Wisconsin river 



about six miles above its confluence witli the Mississippi. 
Tliey were about seven days making the journey, and saw no 
white people between Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. They 
were the first white men who madp a land journey between 
those places. 

The Indian trail Avas the only lake shore route between 
Milwaukee and Green Bay, as late as the year 1840. In 
every direction over the territory, well defined trails existed 
until obliterated by the settlers' plough. 

In May, 1826, Prairie du Chien was inundated ; the troops 
had abandoned Fort Crawford, and the inhabitants had fled 
to the high ground near the bluffs. 

In the territory the accommodations for the Court were 
neither commodious nor elegant. Where there were no Court 
houses, the Courts were held in log school houses, or in rooms 
provided for the occasion. 

The discovery of mineral induced a settlement, which was 
called Mineral Point, and the Court was removed to that place 
from Prairie du Chien in the year 1830. Judge Doty was 
succeeded by David Irvin of Virginia, in 1832, who held the 
oSice until the organization of Wisconsin Territory. 

Charles Dunn, of Illinois, was appointed Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Wisconsin, and 
William C. Frazer, of Pennsylvania, and David Irvin, were 
appointed the Associate Judges. On the fourth day of July, 
1836, these judges took the official oath at Mineral Point. 

At the first session of the territorial legislative assembly, 
which was held at Belmont, in October, 1886, pursuant to the 
organic law, an Act was passed, assigning the Chief Justice 
to the district East of the Mississippi river, Judge Irvin to 
the district West of that river, and Judge Frazer to the lake 
'shore district; and prescribing the places and times of holding 
district Courts. 

The second session of the legislative assembly convened at 



1) 

Burlington, in November, 1837. Another session was lielrl at 
the same place in June 1888. 

The first term of the Supreme Court was held at Belmont 
in December, 1836, by the Chief Justice and Judge Irvin. 

John Catlin was appointed Clerk of the Court — Henry S. 
Baird, the pioneer attorney, having been appointed by Gov- 
ernor Dodge, to the office of Attorney-General — was sworn into 
office, and was also admitted to the Bar with Peter Hill Ensjle, 
Daniel G. Fenton, James D. Doty, James B. Ballou, Thomas 
P. Burnett, William W. Chapman, Lyman J. Daniels, Bar- 
low Shackelford, William N. Gardner, Hans Crocker, James 
A. Lockwood and John S. Horner. The organization of the 
Court was the object of that term. The next annual term, 
appointed to be holden at Madison in July, 1837, was not 
held, no business for the Court having matured. 

On the third Monday in July, 1838, a term of the Supreme 
Court was held by the Chief Justice and Judge Frazier, at 
Madison. William H. Banks, F. S. Lovell, H. N. Wells, 
Jonathan E. Arnold, and Francis J. Dunn, were admitted as 
attorneys and counsellors. Several motions were made, and 
rules granted, when the Court adjourned for the term. 

An Act of Congress, to divide the Territory of Wisconsin, 
and to establish the territorial government of Iowa, was ap- 
proved June 12th, 1838. 

On the 8th November, 1838, Andrew G. Miller, of Penn- 
sylvania, was appointed Associate Judge of the Supreme 
Court, the successor of Judge Frazier, deceased; and on the 
10th December, following, the official oath was administered 
to him, in Milwaukee, by John S. Rockwell, Esq. 

The legislative assembly of Wisconsin commenced a session 
at Madison, November 26, 1838, which continued until De- 
cember 22d, and then adjourned to January 21, 1839. At 
that session a new assignment of the judges for holding dis- 
trict Courts was made. Judge Dunn was assig-ned to the first 
district, composed of the counties of Iowa, Grant and 



10 

Crawford ; Judge Irvin, to tlie second district, composed of the 
counties of Dane, Jefferson, Rock, Walworth, and Green ; 
Judge Miller, to the third district, composed of the counties 
of Milwaukee, Brown and Racine. Unorganized counties were* 
annexed to the several districts for judicial purposes. At that 
session of the legislative assembly, a revision of the statutes 
was made. The laws then enacted were published in one vol- 
ume, and took effect on the fourth day of July, 1839. 

The duty of preparation of the marginal notes, and the in- 
dex, and of superintending the printing and publication of the 
volume, was conferred by the legislative ^assembly upon 
Edward V. Whiton, of Janesville, one of the most able practi- 
cing attorneys in the Territory; and after the admission of the 
State, one of the Circuit Judges ; and for some time prior to 
his decease, the able and upright Chief Justice of the State 
Supreme Court. This volume of statute laws, superseded 
the laws of the Territory of Michigan, condensed and arrang- 
ed in one volume, and published in Detroit in the year 1838. 
•At the opening of the summer term of the district Court of 
Racine County, in 1839, the revised statutes of Michigan 
were administered, and before the close of the terra they were 
superseded by the revised statutes of Wisconsin. The vol- 
ume was acceptable to the legal profession, and people gen- 
erally. 

The laws being in a great measure copied from the statute 
laws of the State of New York, the reports of cases decided 
in the Courts of that State, construing them, materially aided 
the Courts of the Territory in the discharge of their judicial 
duties. A small portion of the volume was taken from statutes 
of Massachusetts and Ohio. The volume, with amendments 
made from time to time by the legislative assembly, comprised 
the statute law of Wisconsin, until the first of January, 1849, 
when the revised statutes, under the State goverment, went 
into force. The territorial revised statutes superseded, in a 



11 

great measure, the claim laws of the early settlers, and the 
miners' rules in the mineral country. Squatters' rights were 
superseded by a code of laws, adequate to the protection of 
the interests of an enterprising and rapidly growing popula- 
tion. 

Before lands Avere brought into market by the President's 
proclamation, the settlers had adopted a system for their mu- 
tual pit)tection. The settler who first entered on a quarter 
section of land, or a fraction of a section, was protected in 
his possession, against jumpers of his claim. By the settlers' 
code, the jumper was summoned before their conmiittee, who 
summarily disposed of the case. If the complainant was 
found to be an actual settler, and entitled to his claim, the 
jumper had to surrender without delay. There was no resist- 
ing the judgment of the committee, for the Avhole town formed 
Si posse to enforce the execution. This was, under the cir- 
cumstances, a wise and humane provision for the early settle- 
ment and improvement of the country ; and in many instances 
personal quarrels were thereby prevented. 

In the early days of the Territory, immigrants from Eastern 
States purchased of the settlers, claims on government lands, 
and for a portion of the consideration, gave their obligations. 
A great number of actions were brought on those contracts, 
which were defended against, on the ground that the settler 
being a trespasser on the lands, the contract was void. The 
Courts held such contracts valid, notwithstanding the settler 
may be considered strictly in the light of a trespasser on gov- 
ernment lands. Where the government had not dispossessed 
either the original settler or the purchaser, and the settler had 
made some improvements, or done some work on the land, pos- 
session was secured to the occupant, by the settlers' rules, 
until the land was sold by the government. The miner, who 
prospected and discovered mineral, claimed a right to work 
the mine subject to a certain royalty. The action of eject- 



12 

ment and of trespass, under the revised statutes, superseded 
those primitive systems. 

Acts of Congress, for organizing territorial governments, 
are passed pursuant to section three of article four of the 
Constitution of the United States, that " Tlie Congress shall 
have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regu- 
lations respecting the territory or other property belonging to 
the United States." Territorial Courts being created by law- 
ful authority, were bound to administer laws of the United 
States, within their jurisdiction, subject to the requirements 
of the constitution. By article seven, of amendments to the 
constitution, " In suits at common law, where the value in 
controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by 
jury shall be preserved." And by article five of the amend- 
ments, " No person shall be held to answer for a capital or 
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indict- 
ment of a grand jury, excepting in cases arising in the land 
or naval forces, or in the militias when in actual service in 
time of war or public danger." And by article six, "In all 
criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury, of the State 
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, 
which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, 
and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; 
to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have com- 
pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense." Under those 
requirements of the constitution and legislative acts, grand 
and petit jurors were summoned for every term of the terri- 
torial district Courts. The jurors were paid from the judi- 
ciary fund of tli^ general government, by the Marshal, for 
their travel and attendance at Court for the first week of the 
term ; for the remainder of the term they were paid by the 
county. United States cases took precedence of other busi- 
ness, and were expected to be disposed of the first week of 
the term. 



The trial by jury, and the humane principle of the criminal 
law, that no person shall be convicted of a crime and sentenced 
to punishment, without the indictment or presentment of twelve 
grand jurors, and verdict of guilty of twelve petit jurors, being 
held sacred as the birthright of every freeman, those constitu- 
tional amendments were adopted immediately after the organi- 
zation of the general government. The grand jury system 
has existed in England for twelve hundred years, and it was 
incorporated into the criminal jurisprudence of this country 
by our ancestors, who valued it as their birthright. The ter- 
ritorial judges faithfully adhered to the system, as prescribed 
by the constitution and laAvs of our country. They uniformly 
instructed grand juries to be thoroughly persuaded of the 
truth of an indictment by legal evidence, and not to find bills 
of indictment without prima facie evidence of guilt. The 
oath of grand jurors, " diligently to enquire, and true pre- 
sentment make of all things given them in charge ; to present 
no man for envy, hatred or malice, nor to leave any one un- 
presented through fear, favor, affection or hope of reward," 
with instructions from the Court, was considered a neces- 
sary safeguard against oppressive purposes. The judges of 
those Courts, in common with men of judicial experience, 
would have considered an effort to abolish the grand jury sys- 
tem, a bold strike at the rights and liberties of the people. 

At the term of .the territorial Supreme Court, for 1840, 
common law rule of practice, for all the District Courts were 
adopted. These rules were uniform throughout the territory, 
and were acceptable to the profession. They simplified plead- 
ings, and relieved the practicing attorney of preparing volu- 
minous papers in the ordinary routine of business in the 
Courts. The same rules, but more in detail, were adopted as 
the rules of the Federal Court in this district. 

The constitution of the United States having recognized the 
distinction between law and equity, the territorial Courts 
would have enforced it, independently of the provision of 



14 

the organic law. These Courts pursued equity and common 
law practice with technicality, but with liberality as to amend- 
ments. Many valuable precedents and principles of law, 
were established by the Territorial Supreme Court. 

The second Act of Congress, to establish a uniform system 
of Bankruptcy throughout the United States, was approved 
August 19th, 1841, and took effect from and after the first 
day of February, 1842. Jurisdiction of cases in bankruptcy 
being by the Act, conferred upon the Supreme or Superior 
Courts of the Territories, the Supreme Court of this Terri- 
tory discharged three hundred petitioners out of three hundred 
and fifteen. A majority of those petitioners had failed in 
business in the Eastern States, in consequence of inflation 
of the currency and of speculations, in the year 1836. It was 
estimated that the debts of those three hundred bankrupts 
exceeded two millions of dollars. The Act largely increased 
the miles of travel and the judicial duties of the judges, who 
held their Court in Madison. The judges were empowered by 
the Act to form the, rules of their Court in Bankruptcy, and 
to establish the fee bill. Under the fee bill of the Supreme 
Court in bankruptcy, the fees in cases did not average twenty 
dollars. The Act was repealed on the 3d March, 1843, hav- 
ing been in operation thirteen months. The same Congress 
that passed the Act repealed it. 

The first settlers of the territory, were' men trained to in- 
dustry and economy. They were honest and enterprizing. 
They laid their hands to the plough and looked not back. 
They formed a substantial basis for the building up 
of this great State. The settlements commenced on 
the shores of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river, and 
extended with unprecedented rapidity towards the interior. 
Contracts necessarily made in opening up and improving the 
country, gave rise to a great amount of litigation. The dis- 
trict Courts, particularly of the first and third districts, were 
open a great portion of each year, after 1842. We have not 



15 

been able to ascertain the number of causes disposed of in any 

of the districts, except the third, in which there were about 

eight thousand. Before the termination of the Territorial 

government, the counties of Waukesha, Sheboygan, Dodge, 

Fond du Lac, Washington, Winnebago, and Manitowoc, had 

been organized for judicial purposes, and annexed to the 

third district ; and several counties were added to the first 

and second districts. 

Grand juries were summoned for every term of the Courts ; 

but to the great credit of the population, criminal indictments 

were not numerous. There were several trials for crimes, 

punishable capitally. In 1824, Oshkosh, the Menominee 

chief, was convicted of murder, at Green Bay, and was sub- 

» 
sequently discharged on the ground, that the murder having 

been committed in the Indian country, the Court had not ju- 
risdiction. In 1839, a Frenchman was tried in Brown County 
for the murder of his Indian wife, of the Stockbridge tribe, 
and acquitted on the ground of insanity. In 1844, in the 
same county, an Indian, of the Menominee tribe, was tried 
for murder and convicted of manslaughter. At different times 
four Indians, of the same tribe, confined in the jail of Brown 
county, on complaints of murder, committed suicide by hang- 
ing. In 1837, two Indians, of the same tribe, were convicted 
of murder, in Milwaukee, and pardoned by the Governor. 
About the year 1845, one man was convicted of murder, in 
the first district, and executed. One man was tried for mur- 
der in the second district, and acquitted. In 1846, a man was 
tried in Racine for murder and convicted. He was pardoned 
by the Governor of the State. In the same year a man was 
tried at Milwaukee, for robbery of the Mail, on the route be- 
tween Milwaukee and Fond du Lac, by putting the life of the 
carrier in jeopardy, by the use of a dangerous weapon, a load- 
ed rifle. The jury acquited him of the capital offense, and 
convicted him, of the robbery of the mail. He was sentenced 
to ten years imprisonment. 



Tlic first annual term of the Territorial Supreme Oourt, 
after the organization of the Territory of Iowa, was held at 
Madison, the seat of government, in the month of July, 1839, 
by all the judges. John Catlin having resigned the office of 
Clerk, Simeon Mills, was appointed the Clerk. He held the 
office one year and resigned. At the term of 1840, Lafayette 
Kellogg, the present efficient clerk of the State Supreme Court 
was appointed the clerk, and he discharged the duties of the 
office to the entire satisfaction of the Court during the Terri- 
torial government. 

x\n annual session of the Supreme Court Avas held at 
Madison, pursuant to the organic act, by all the judges, in 
the month of July, in each of the years of 1840, 1841, 1842, 
1843, 1844, 1845, 1846 and 1847. About two hundred and 
forty causes, brought up by writs of error or appeals, were' 
disposed of. 

It is to be regretted that the records do not contain a full 
list of attorneys and counsellors admitted at the several terms. 
No doubt many gentlemen were admitted whose names are 
not recorded. 

At the term of July, 1839, T. J. Hunger, William H. Sey- 
mour, and John Catlin were admitted. At the term of 1840, 
D. A. J. Upham, Wiram Knowlton, Charles T. Earned, 
Lorenzo Janes, Edward V. Whiton, John H. Tweedy, and 
Charles C. P. Arndt were admitted. At the term of 1841, 
Alexander Botkin and Alexander P. Field were admitted. At 
the term of 1842, James S. Baker, Asahel Finch, Edward P. 
Carr, Alexander L. Collins, Zolotus P. Mayo and A. D. 
Smith were admitted. At the term of 1843, William P. 
Lynde, Chauncy Abbott, and Henry Waggoner were admitted. 
At the term of 1844, Isaac P. Vv'alkerj Levi Hubbell, A. 
Hyatt Smith, and Samuel Crawford were admitted. At the 
term of 1845, Cyrus P. Hiller was admitted. It does not ap- 
pear that any attorneys were admitted at the terms of 1846 
and 1847. 



17 

The judges usually prepared the opinions the same week 
or within a few days after the arguments. They made greater 
efforts at making correct decisions, than elaborating opinions 
Many of the opinions were meager, and at this day may not 
be very satisfactory to the profession. 

There was no term of the Supreme Court after that of 1847. 
The several district Courts continued in full operation until 
the spring of 1848. 

The Act of Congress for the admission of VVisconsin into 
the Union as a State, was approved May 29, 1848, whereby 
the Territorial government was merged into that of the State. 




i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





